August 28, 2016 - Perfection (Again!)

Perfection is something we all strive for at some point in life, we want to be the perfect  son or daughter, the perfect parent, to play something perfectly. It is human nature to want to be the best at something. 

The summer olympics just ended, and it was filled with many joys and sorrows. Two people I know personally had a good chance to participate in the games so I had more than a normal amount of interest in watching them. A former student of mine was one of the fastest 50 meter freestyle swimmers in the world and a former dance mate of my children was trying to make the U.S. gymnastics team.

To reach the level of competition needed to win a place on the olympic team requires a near-perfect, if not perfect performance. Both came up just short, they weren't good enough even though they were among the best in the world. Perfection is difficult!

I began to think about the average person and our average desires to seek perfection. In which areas of life have I sought to be perfect? 

Have I ever reached perfection?

Is even my faith perfect?

In my youth I was a pitcher in baseball. I always longed to throw that "perfect game" but the best I ever did was to just come close. I just read about a pitcher who came within one out of a no-hitter and lost it. So close, but yet so far away.Again, perfection is difficult!

Before I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior I had the misconception to believe that I must walk the perfect path to be good enough. That, "to be saved" I must already be worthy. Fortunately for me, God opened my eyes. I had been hstriving for perfection when imperfection was the reason Christ died for me and for you. Through Christ, we become perfect and able to enter God's kingdom because our imperfections are washed clean.

God teaches us through life and scripture to seek perfection, but accept His help in reaching it. Kind of like my own situation where I failed to understand the second part of His directive. I thought that I, alone, must reach a perfect state.

In The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48. 

And as Paul says to the Phillipians, in Phillipians 3:12 "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own."

We should always remember that we live in God's plan, not ours. 

That our sins and shortcomings are things he has already known about us. 

That our failure to live up to the laws of Moses, though we freely choose to sin like all mankind, are a part of His plan.

And that He has provided a path to perfection that we merely need to accept.

Perfection IS difficult...if we try to reach it alone!

The elements of the table are our reminders that Jesus is our guide to perfection and that, with His body and washed in His blood, we are perfect in the eyes of God. On the night that He was betrayed, Jesus took the loaf and gave thanks for it. Then He broke it, saying "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.